magic show – Page 2 – MagicShow.Tips

Mastering Comedy Magic by Ian Batterbury

On the plane the other day I read Mastering Comedy Magic by Ian Batterbury. This book goes through different techniques and objectives with using comedy in a magic show. The book says it’s intended for beginners at comedy magic. I would say it’s for beginning at adding unique comedy to their magic.

The difference is that there are a lot of comedy magicians out there who have never had an original thought in their life. They are doing Banana Bandana, or whatever using the jokes the trick came with, or worse using the jokes they’ve seen other people do without permission.

This book is a general “theory” of performing comedy magic, without much in the way of tools, like how a joke is structured. If you’ve never created your own original script for a routine, this book will give you some good guidelines to help you out. With it only being about $10 on Amazon, it’s worth looking into.

-Louie
PS Another good book to look into is Ryan Kane’s Out of Stock

Magic Show Script Writing…

Every year in my library show I try to have at least one trick that has a life larger than that show. Something that I’ll try to put into my main show. One of the new routines that I have been doing in my library shows uses a Cootie Catcher/Paper Fortune Teller.

This routine has been doing well, and it’s a great little solo routine that’s compact a trick that packs flat, but because it’s a three dimensional trick that moves, it has a bit more visual texture than a flat prop.

There’s not a ton to the routine that I’m working on. It’ll hopefully have 6 laughs in two minutes. I’m always looking for solo tricks that I can do without someone from the audience onstage.

-Louie

Both Sides of a Magic Trick

I was playing around with some ideas of tricks to record with my Ray Ban Meta Glasses. One of the neat things is that if I do a magic trick to a mirror, you can record both sides of the trick simultaneously.

Here’s my attempt at doing that:

@louiefoxx Backstage at the magic show #cardtrick #magic #mirrior ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I think it came out well and is a good choice of trick as both sides of the card change, so there’s a good reason to show both sides of the cards!

-Louie

Move The Monitors!

When I show up to set up my show on a stage, there’s normally monitors at the front of the stage. If I’m doing a solo show (not in a show with multiple performers), I will ask the sound tech to move the monitors. I think it’s important for the audience to see my whole body, but more than that, I do a couple of low things and with monitors, that stuff is invisible to the audience.

Recently on a travel day while I was looking for lunch in a town I stumbled up on a festival. One of the acts on their stage was an Irish Stepdance group.

Look at the picture above, you really can’t see their feet! I understand that’s unfortunate placement of the gray power box in the middle, but there’s no reason that the monitors couldn’t be moved to the sides of the stage and turned so they face the middle. That would not affect the dancer’s ability to hear the music.

In a magic show, we don’t normally need monitors like a band does, so don’t let the sound tech set up your show like a band! It’s OK to ask the sound tech to move monitors, they’re easy to move and it’s not a big deal.

Here’s a post I wrote almost a year ago with some good comparison pictures:
http://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/move-the-monitors/

Now be assertive and visually clean up your stage!

-Louie

Evaporation – Milk!

In my show the Evaporation gimmick that I use in a milk bottle. Really it’s a Sunny D bottle that has a milk label that I printed out on it. Recently while I was performing in Wyoming I found this milk bottle:

This is my dream bottle for a milk bottle for my Evaporation trick. The only problem is that it’s a unicorn. What makes this bottle perfect for milk is that it’s smooth, which makes it easy to clean and it’s clear, so the liquid is very visible. Unfortunately I’ve spend too much time trying to track down more of these bottles and all the ones I can find are frosted and not clear. With a frosted bottle it’s hard to see the liquid inside.

Normally milk is in a frosted or opaque bottle as light isn’t good for milk. That convinces me that these were an error at the place that makes the bottles. Unfortunately I won’t be able to offer these for sale to magicians as there’s only two and I’m going to be using them. However if you want my standard Evaporation that’s gimmicked for milk, shoot me a note and I can make you one.

-Louie

It’s a Wrap on Library Shows for 2025

Well, I’m doing doing library shows for the summer. When I was putting together the show, one of the goals was that it was one trip in and one trip out of the library. I also wanted that to be only one thing in each hand. Here’s what the show looked liked when packed up.

What’s pictured above is everything for the show. The show was was expandable from it’s most basic form which was the prop box on the table to set up that filled a larger space.

The other goal was for the show was that is played big. It didn’t feel like a suitcase magic show where everything is flat. The show had a lot of textures and I really liked doing this show.

I’m proud of this show and I think I may keep it to cycle back into the rotation for kid shows in the future. The more important thing was that I used this show to learn to do things that will have a life outside of this show. I learned to use and get confident with the iQpro app to run video for my show and I using ankle switches for my show.

One of the goals for my summer library show is that I work on something that I can use outside of that specific show. Whether it’s a routine that I can use in another show or in this case, production stuff.

Always look for a second life for things!

-Louie

Recording My Show

When Ray Ban first put out their Ray Ban Stories glasses with a video camera in it, I thought about getting them. The current version is the Ray Ban Meta, which does more than just record. They’re also voice assistants, and does a few other things.

I had been on the fence about getting them for years and I finally picked up a pair.

The current version of them when the record, there’s a LED that flashes. Obviously I don’t like that it’s distracting. It’s purpose is so that you can’t secretly record people, and that makes sense. However to use them to record another angle of my show that’s already being recorded by a camera or two I personally have no issue using them without the LED flashing.

The challenge is disabling the LED. You can’t simply cover it, if you do, you’ll get an error. What I did was read a bunch on Reddit and found a few solutions and picked the one that I thought was best and fit my level of how much I wanted to alter the glasses.

If you’re thinking of getting a pair of these, read up on what they do and don’t do to decide if they’re right for you. Also if you want to disable the LED, be sure to read up on different ways to do it to make sure you are comfortable with the level of risk of damage to the glasses that can happen.

-Louie

A Simple Trick to Not Forget Anything

One of the challenges of doing your show is packing up. Specifically not forgetting anything. One thing I do is the “Dummy Check” where after you’re packed out, you visually look where your stuff was one more time to look for anything you forgot.

One of the challenges with this summers library show is that the show used a lot of power and I tried to charge the batteries while I was packing up a show. For a normal day of two to three libraries, it’s not a big deal. However there were many days where I had four or five shows in a day. That meant that if I could charge the batteries for 10 or 15 mins while I packed up, it made a huge difference for that last show.

The technique I would use to not forget to the batteries was to put my keys near where they were charging as the plug wasn’t always near the performing area. Without my car key, I couldn’t load out. For me this was a fool proof system to make sure I left with the batteries!

If you’re worried about not packing something, put your keys near it!

-Louie

Best Spoons and Forks for Metal Bending!

Frequently, I see people ask in social media groups “what are the best spoons/forks for metal bending?” The answers are all over the place, from ones specifically being sold at magic shops to Walmart. For me, you can’t the the Costco spoons and forks!

The cheap ones less than 31 cents per fork and less than 27 cents per spoon. They’re soft and ready to go out of the package. The normal Costco doesn’t normally stock these but the Business Costco does! A normal Costco membership will get you into the business Costco and walking around you might find other things you need for your show that the normal Costco doesn’t have.

I don’t know if Costco sells them online, but you should be able to search based on the info in the pictures above.

Happy spoon/fork bending!

-Louie

Challenging Stage

This is a cool looking stage, but a hard one to work on. In the picture you can’t see the depth of the stage behind the proscenium arch. It’s about 8 feet deep to the video wall with name on it, then the stage sticks out about 20 feet or so in front of the proscenium arch.

The challenge is sight lines for the audience, no matter where you stand, there are people that can’t see your face. The drawing below might help visualize what’s happening:

No matter where you are, either the side of the arch is blocking or people are behind you. That’s just the seats on the floor, there’s spots above that are almost on the same wall as the arch!

This makes showing things really difficult and time consuming as you have to show everything to the extreme right and left sides.

Challenges aside, this is a really fun room to work! I’m glad I got to do seven shows there, and was able to dial in the show to just work worked in the room. It would have been a shame if I only did one show there and that was it. This is also a good reason to travel with back up material, two of the routines that I planned to do in the room weren’t ideal for this space.

-Louie